The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-10-13
FICTION.
Common Errors Concerning Popularity as
Test of Merit in a Book.

ComInon Errors Concerning Popularity as
Test of Merit i'm a Book.
A writer in Western periodical has
put into convenient shape some COM
mon errors concerning popularity as a
test of merit in book. He seems to
think, for instance, that the love of the
marvellous and impossible in fiction,
which Is shown not only by 1.-THE un-
thinking multitude clamoring about
the book counters" for fiction of that
sort, but by the "literary elect" also,
is proof of some principle in human
nature which ought to be respected as
well as tolerated. He seems to believe
that the ebullition of this passion forms
q sufficient answer to those who say
that art of all kinds should represent
life, and that the art which misrepre-
sents life is feeble art and false art.
But it appears to us that little care
fuller reasoning from little closer in
spection of the facts would not have
brought him to these conclusions. In
the first place, we doubt very much
whether the Literary elect" have been
fascinated in great numbers by the
fiction in question; but if we supposed
them to have really fallen under that
spell, we should still be able to ac-
count for their fondness and that of
the ''unthinking multitude" upon the
same grounds, without honoring
either very much. 1t is the habit of
hasty casuists to regard civilization as
inclusive of all the members of civil
lied community; but this is palpable
error. Many persons in every civil
lied community live in a state of more
or less evident savagery with respect
to their habits, their morals, and their
propensities; and they are held in
check only by the law. Many more
yet are savage in their tastes, as they
show by the decoration of their houses
and persons, and by their choice of
books and pictures; and these are left
to the restraints of public opinion. In
fact, no man can be said to be thorough
ly civilized or always civilized; the
most refined, the most enlightened
person has his moods, his moments of
barbarism, in which the best, or even
the second best, shall not please him.
At these times the lettered and the un-
lettered are alike primitive, and their
qualifications are of the same simple
sort; the highly cultivated person may
then like melodrama, impossible tic-
ton, and the trapeze as sincerely and
thoroughly as boy of thirteen or a
barbarian of any age.
We do not blame him for these
moods; we find something instructive
and interesting in them; but if they
lastingly established themselves in
him, we could not help deploring the
state of that person. No one can really
think that the ''literary elect" who
are said to have Joined the ''unthink-
ing multitude" in clamoring about the
book counters for the romances of no.
mans land, take the same kind of
pleasure in them as they do in a novel
of Tolstoi, Tourguenif, George Eliot,
Thackeray, Balzac, Manzoni, Haw-
thorne, Henry James, Thomas Hardy,
Palacic Faldes, or even Walter Scott.
They have joined the ''unthinking
multitude" perhaps because they are
tired of thinking, and expect to find
relaxation in feeling-feeling crudely,
grossly, merely. For once in way
there is no great harm in this; perhaps
no harm at all. 1t is perfectly natural;
let them have their innocent debauch.
But let us distinguish, for our own
sake and guidance, between the differ
ent kinds of things that please the
same kind of people; between the
things that please them habitually and
those that please them occasionally;
|. between the pleasures that edify them
and those that amuse them. Other
wise we shall be in danger of becoming
permanently part of the ''unthinking
multitude" and of remaining puerile,
primitive, savage. We shall be SO in
moods and at moments; but let us not
fancy that those are high moods or
fortunate moments. If they are harm
less, that is the most that can be said
for them. They are lapses from which
we can perhaps go forward more Wig
orously; but even this is not certain.
Our own philosophy of the matter,
however, would not bring us to pro-
hibition of such literary amusements
as the writer quoted seems to find
significant of growing indifference
to truth and sanity in fiction. Once
more, we say, these amusements have
their place, az the circus has, and the
burlesque, and negro minstrelsy, and
the ballet, and prestidigitation. No
one of these is to be despised in its
place; but we had better understand
that it is not the highest place, and
that it is hardly an intellectual delight.
The lapse of all the ''literary elect" in
the world could not dignity unreali-
ty; and their present mood if it exists,
is of no more weight against that
beauty in literature which comes from
truth alone, and never can come from
anything else, than the permanent
state of the ''unthinking multitude. ="
l. L.